Cuban People

Fidel Castro's decision to give up Cuba's presidency is an opportunity for the threesome vying for the U.S. presidency. All the leading presidential candidates -- John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama -- to encourage Cuba toward democratic reforms. Each rightly called for Cuba to release its political prisoners. Obama noted that the Cuban people should determine their own future. Clinton said she would work with Latin America and Europe to encourage positive change in Cuba. McCain wisely noted that "freedom for the Cuban people is not yet at hand.

Last week, on the 106th anniversary of Cuba's independence from Spain, President George W. Bush announced that the United States is adopting new regulations to allow Americans to send mobile phones and computers to people on the island. "Today, I also repeat my offer to license U.S. NGOs and faith-based groups to provide computers and Internet to the Cuban people -- if Cuban rulers will end their restrictions on Internet access," Bush said. "And since Raul (Castro) is allowing Cubans to own mobile phones for the first time, we're going to change our regulations to allow Americans to send mobile phones to family members in Cuba.

BUCHANAN They called him "cowboy" and "Jesse James," but Buchanan resident Mark Mitchell said the Cuban people he met on a recent mission trip also called him brother. Mitchell is the son of David and Jann Mitchell, pastors of Faith Victory Fellowship Church on Main Street north of Buchanan. The younger Mitchell works at Woodwind & Brasswind in South Bend and at Home Depot in Benton Harbor. He is a 2001 graduate of Buchanan High School. This was his first mission trip outside of the country.

For her debut novel, Los Angeles-based author Rachel Kushner intricately and intelligently weaves a multilayered quilt of nationalities and social classes, adolescence and adulthood, even good and evil. She examines humanity and business, politics and deception during a time in Cuba so pivotal that sometimes the fictional work reads like a true account of events. That's because it's based on history. "Telex From Cuba" is set mostly in 1958, the year that Fidel Castro and his army of rebels successfully revolted against President Batista and his regime.

HAVANA (AP) -- Cubans snapped up DVD players, motorbikes and pressure cookers for the first time Tuesday as Raul Castro's new government loosened controls on consumer goods and invited private farmers to plant tobacco, coffee and other crops on unused state land. Combined with other reforms announced in recent days, the measures suggest real changes are being driven by the new president, who vowed when he took over from his brother Fidel to remove some of the more irksome limitations on the daily lives of Cubans.

WASHINGTON -- Facing the camera with a statue of a giant gold eagle on her desk, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen talks casually about how proud she is to represent Cuban "freedom fighters" living in exile in Miami and on the island. Then the Miami Republican -- recently tapped to become the top Republican on the House International Relations Committee -- says, "I welcome the opportunity of having anyone assassinate Fidel Castro and any leader who is oppressing the people. " The 28-second snippet appears on the Web site for a new British documentary, "638 Ways to Kill Castro," and is making a stir in the blogosphere, where some viewers have questioned Ros-Lehtinen's suitability for the House committee post.

I think all intelligent, patriotic and informed people can agree: It would be great if the United States could find an Iraqi Augusto Pinochet. In fact, an Iraqi Pinochet would be even better than an Iraqi Castro. Both propositions strike me as so self-evident as to require no explanation. But as I have discovered in recent days, many otherwise rational people can't think straight when the names Fidel Castro and Augusto Pinochet come up. Let's put aside, at least for a moment, the question of which man was (or is)

For her debut novel, Los Angeles-based author Rachel Kushner intricately and intelligently weaves a multilayered quilt of nationalities and social classes, adolescence and adulthood, even good and evil. She examines humanity and business, politics and deception during a time in Cuba so pivotal that sometimes the fictional work reads like a true account of events. That's because it's based on history. "Telex From Cuba" is set mostly in 1958, the year that Fidel Castro and his army of rebels successfully revolted against President Batista and his regime.

BUCHANAN They called him "cowboy" and "Jesse James," but Buchanan resident Mark Mitchell said the Cuban people he met on a recent mission trip also called him brother. Mitchell is the son of David and Jann Mitchell, pastors of Faith Victory Fellowship Church on Main Street north of Buchanan. The younger Mitchell works at Woodwind & Brasswind in South Bend and at Home Depot in Benton Harbor. He is a 2001 graduate of Buchanan High School. This was his first mission trip outside of the country.

Last week, on the 106th anniversary of Cuba's independence from Spain, President George W. Bush announced that the United States is adopting new regulations to allow Americans to send mobile phones and computers to people on the island. "Today, I also repeat my offer to license U.S. NGOs and faith-based groups to provide computers and Internet to the Cuban people -- if Cuban rulers will end their restrictions on Internet access," Bush said. "And since Raul (Castro) is allowing Cubans to own mobile phones for the first time, we're going to change our regulations to allow Americans to send mobile phones to family members in Cuba.

HAVANA (AP) -- Cubans snapped up DVD players, motorbikes and pressure cookers for the first time Tuesday as Raul Castro's new government loosened controls on consumer goods and invited private farmers to plant tobacco, coffee and other crops on unused state land. Combined with other reforms announced in recent days, the measures suggest real changes are being driven by the new president, who vowed when he took over from his brother Fidel to remove some of the more irksome limitations on the daily lives of Cubans.

Fidel Castro's decision to give up Cuba's presidency is an opportunity for the threesome vying for the U.S. presidency. All the leading presidential candidates -- John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama -- to encourage Cuba toward democratic reforms. Each rightly called for Cuba to release its political prisoners. Obama noted that the Cuban people should determine their own future. Clinton said she would work with Latin America and Europe to encourage positive change in Cuba. McCain wisely noted that "freedom for the Cuban people is not yet at hand.